India has claimed that the Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s open admission of his country’s history of supporting and funding terrorist organisations has exposed Pakistan of being a “rogue state fuelling global terrorism and destabilising the region.”

Underlining Khawaja Asif’s confession of Islamabad funding and supporting terrorist organisations, India’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Yojna Patel had asserted: “This open confession surprises no one and exposes Pakistan as a rogue state fuelling global terrorism and destabilising the region.”

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Speaking at the launch of a Right of Reply at the hybrid launch event for the ‘Victims of Terrorism Association Network’ (VoTAN) of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism when Pakistan’s delegate made a reference to the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir, Ms Patel condemned terrorism “in all its forms”.

She said the confession exposed Pakistan as a “rogue state” fuelling terrorism across the world. “The whole world has heard the Pakistani Defence Minister Khawaja Asif admitting and confessing Pakistan’s history of supporting, training and funding terrorist organisations in a recent television interview,” she said asserting “the world can no longer turn a blind eye. I have nothing further to add”.

Mr Asif, in an interview to Sky News, admitted that the country had been supporting and training terrorists for the “last three decades” but pinned the blame on the United States and the West. “Well, we have been doing this dirty work for the United States for about three decades, you know, and the West, including Britain,” Mr Asif had said.

She said that the strong, unequivocal support and solidarity extended by global leaders in the wake of the terrorist attack in Pahalgam is a “testimony to the international community’s zero tolerance” for terrorism.

“The Pahalgam terrorist attack represents the largest number of civilian casualties since the horrific 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008,” Ms Patel said asserting that being a victim of cross-border terrorism for decades, “India fully understands the long-lasting impact such acts have on have on victims, their families and society.”